Morning Coffee: 4,700 new banking jobs created in London since December? Blankfein and Dimon pitch in person for IPO deal

Are you looking for a new financial services job in London? Are you struggling to find one? That's odd, because according to one recruitment firm nearly 5,000 new banking jobs have been created in the City of London since December alone.

The figures emanate from recruitment firm Astbury Marsden, which calculates that 1,340 jobs were created in London's finance sector in December, followed by another 3,350 in January. Things are seemingly looking up: January's job creation figure was the highest in 18 months and and December 2013's figure was 67% higher than Astbury Marsden's figure for December 2012. And yet the methodology behind job figures from recruitment firms is always opaque, and likely based upon extrapolations from their own experience. Astbury Marsden deals predominantly with support roles in the City, so middle and back office jobs may be increasing but its figures will have less integrity when it comes measuring job creation in the front office. The recruitment firm itself suggests that much of the recruitment now is in compliance. Don't be surprised if you can't find a new job in fixed income trading.

Separately, the $20m men have been put to work. The Sunday Times reported that Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein, both of whom earned more than $20m for 2013, have been out pitching for business. The two men have reportedly been seeking to charm the Royal Banking of Scotland into giving them a role on the £9b listing of its American business Citizens. Citizens is expected to be one of the largest IPOs of the year for 2014. It will be interesting to see which CEO proved the most charming.

Meanwhile:

Michael Sherwood, the co-head of Goldman Sachs in London, received a $19m (£11.6m) bonus last week. (The Times)